Hey Babe,
Had a terrible night sleep last night. Read until 2:00, and still didn’t get to sleep for a long time afterward. Lola woke me up with barking a couple of times after that, so not surprisingly, it was nearly 10:00 by the time I got out of bed. I hate it when I start the day so late! Thank goodness I have patient horses, they didn’t make any fuss until they saw me come out of the trailer. Got more chores done, then ran down to the office to pick up a pair of replacement Ariat boots that I had delivered here, then came back and saddled up Apollo for a short ride today. Despite reasonably good footing with only a few spots of rock, he kept trying to stay off the trail, which meant I was constantly being pushed into the overgrowth, which unfortunately here has a lot of vines covered with pricklys and thorns, so I wasn’t too happy about that. Not sure what his problem is, his feet seem fine, but I’m going to just put boots on him for awhile, or better yet, not ride him at all for awhile to see if whatever it is gets better. Just worried more about him getting stiff from standing around all the time! We went about 5 ½ miles, including a small loop south of camp that goes through the day parking area, so I’ve pretty much covered most of the trails, just a few crossovers that I haven’t done yet. It was actually a bit more interesting today, less around fields and more in the woods, but still, not the most exciting trails I’ve ever done. The bugs were bad again, but when I went shopping yesterday, I pretty much emptied the shelves of what remaining insecticides they had there, so I sprayed myself and Apollo pretty good. Lola decided to stay home today, guess we wore her out doing our fast pace on Flash for ten miles yesterday! After we got back and I put Apollo up, I decided to take a quick dip in the lake, it had gotten pretty hot today. Blew up my River tube rather than my kayak, put together an oar and headed down to Picnic Point. The mosquitoes were terrible on land, but once I got out onto the water it wasn’t bad. Wasn’t exactly refreshing, though, the water was practically bathtub warm, like a pool in summer in Florida. Glad I did it though, made for a change. Got back, did a few more chores, put some stuff away since we’re expecting rain overnight, and hopefully cooler temps! Settled down for the evening, grilled a nice burger, now I’m headed for shower and bed, hopefully I’ll bet to sleep a bit earlier, I’m yawning already! Good night, darlin’! Love you!

Hi Darlin’,
Well, I probably should have driven around camp a bit yesterday to look for another site, since the group next to me is very large, fairly loud, has countless dogs that bark for no apparent reason, and have several generators that they run a LOT, one in particular that’s really loud. That said, I put my earplugs in last night and slept like a baby. One generator finally went off around 11:15, but there was another one still going when I put my earplugs in, so who knows when that got turned off. Too much trouble to move, though, so I’ll just have to live with it. Got up a little after 8:00, did my chores, had breakfast, and saddled up Flash since I wanted to get out before it got too hot. I took heed of the advice I got about how bad the bugs were and really put on a good layer of fly spray on Flash and doused myself with a lot of Deep Woods Off. I found the trailhead and headed out of camp, and within moments were were covered with flies and mosquitoes, though they were repelled a bit by all the insecticide. The first couple of hundreds yards were through woods, and though there were a lot of trees down, it wasn’t bad. Then we spent the next several miles doing little more that go around fallow fields full of wildflowers, very boring. We finally came into some more woods as we reached the west side of the park. I took a turn that went by a big pond, which was the most interesting part of the trail up to that point, then realized it was a wrong turn and had to go back anyway. I also took what looked like a more interesting trail, the first single-track I’d come across, but that turned out to be wrong, too, it had a bunch of trees and limbs down on it, obviously not maintained, and eventually I came to a big tree across the trail with no way around it, at least not one I would take Flash over, so we had to backtrack again back to the main trail. Essentially, there aren’t any single track trails here, it’s all wide roads, with just a few places with stones so not too bad, didn’t need boots. Other than a few crossovers between trails, there’s not much else to see here, so one week is going to be more than enough here. I did see a couple of deer, one nice big buck in one of the fields, but this place is designed more for hunting than horseback riding, pretty boring by my standards, even without comparing it to Hungerford where I just left. The flies and mosquitoes were really bad, too, and Flash’s answer was to try to outrun them, so we were flying along most of the way, averaging about 5-6 mph with spurts up to 7+. We did 10.23 miles in under two hours, so he was definitely booking it. Not sure what’s going to happen when I ride Apollo tomorrow, but I’m definitely taking my horsehair flyswatter with me! Got back, put Flash up and gave them both more hay, then changed and headed into town, which is only about 10 minutes away. Refilled two of my propane tanks and went shopping at Walmart for some essentials, then got back to camp around 4:00. Settled down early for the evening, grilled a nice Italian sausage, with leftover mac and cheese and a nice salad, and relaxed the rest of the evening. Now, as always, it’s time for shower and bed! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Babe,
Not a bad night sleep, but got up with the alarm so I wouldn’t be late meeting up with Alayna. We had arranged earlier to ride today, so I got my chores done, which included two loads of laundry through the wash and hung out to dry, then had Flash saddled up in time, though I was delayed a few minutes because I put on the breast collar I had bought for him back in late May. I didn’t think it would fit him, but once I got it on, it was fine. We headed off to do the new trails, surprisingly Alayna had never done them before, so we went directly up there. They are both beautiful trails, again alternating between beautiful deciduous and gorgeous pine plantation sections. It was a bit over 11.5 miles. The last trail we did was Trail 10, which is along a pipeline (though it doesn’t look like one), and it’s a straight shot back to the day parking area. By that time, Flash was tired of going slow, and Alayna’s horse Glory wasn’t quite up to it, so Flash and I took off at top speed, just to use up some of his excess energy. We cantered and gaited the entire trail, jumping over logs and just having ourselves a good old time. We reached the trailhead in no time, and waited for them to arrive. She had told me her grandma was disappointed that she didn’t see my Snowy River performance the other day, so I offered to come over to their house, which is only a few miles away, and do it for them, which I did after I had dinner. They had some company that enjoyed it, too, and we all had a nice visit. After I got back to the trailer, I packed a few more things away before settling down for the evening. I’ve already had my shower, I’ve made the bed, and now I’m heading for it! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hi Babe,
Slept well, did my chores, then saddled up Flash, just mounting up when Alayna arrived at exactly 10:00 as planned (love it when people are prompt!), and we headed out. We had a lovely two hour ride to get to the Woodville store, which is just a nice little convenience store with gas, one of those old-fashioned, family operated kind of places. It had a couple of hitching posts in back (built by Alayna’s relatives a long time ago), and a bench seat. We decided against lunch, and instead splurged on ice cream (even their smallest cone was two scoops!), before heading back to camp. Got back right around 3:00 (took the trail by the lake so it was a little longer), got Flash put away, then Alayna came by to sell me a nice pink bandana with the trail map on it, which I had asked for. Then I headed into town, thinking I would be picking up my truck, but it turns out they weren’t happy with the paint job and wanted to spray it again, so it won’t be ready till tomorrow. I went into town anyway to get some propane, stopped at the post office for my package from Jeff with my mail, and pick up a couple of my books from the truck (Alayna wanted a copy for a friend). I went to Lowes to get the supplies I needed to build a new frame for the water tank in the truck, and couldn’t believe the poor quality of their 2X4s. I mean, seriously, it looked like they were rough cut straight off a tree! None of them were square, all of them had terrible knots, and that was the pressure-treated stuff! I managed to find some “project” wood, whatever that means, but they were the right size so I won’t have to cut them. Not so with the 2X10, all I could get was a 10 foot length and it was extremely expensive, but there’s been a shortage, apparently someone’s been hoarding it, plus their lumber saw wasn’t working (how often has THAT happened to us. Like, EVERY TIME!), so now I’m going to have to figure out how to cut it down. All I’ve got is a hacksaw and a jigsaw, but I only need two cuts, so hopefully I can manage that. I’m pretty sure my assortment of jigsaw blade includes a wood one, we’ll see! Finished off my running around by picking up a few things at Walmart, got back to camp, just got settled in, then had a video call with Pam Daly, you remember her from Actor’s Rep in WPB? We knew her before we got married! She’s still married to her husband (30 years), and she’s been very busy working, she’s teaching and coaching actors and has apparently quite successful at it! And she’s been doing most of it via video, so she’s stayed busy throughout the pandemic. Anyway, we had a nice chat, and we’re hoping to get together at some point in the future. Afterward, I signed off, then settled down for the evening. Time for shower and bed! Good night, my sweet! Love you!

Hi Sweetie!
Had a hard time getting to sleep last night, read till pretty late, but eventually managed it. A beautiful cool night, too! Did my chores, then proceeded to turn a 5-minute job into a 30-minute one. Every since I fixed the washer, I’ve been meaning to reapply some of that crack foam around the hoses where they come up from the floor, and I finally decided to do that this morning. I pulled all of the drawers out of the linen closet and take the panel off the side wall, only to figure out that I couldn’t reach it from there and all I needed to do was pull the two little drawers out underneath. Oh, well, at least the job got done! Then I had to put it all back again, of course. Finally finished, I saddled up Apollo to take him on a ride today. I decided to do the same ride that we did here back in 2013 (the one and only ride we completed, since the first one we took, I crashed before we got 100 yards up the trail, and was in too much pain the next few days to ride again, plus it rained, according to my diary entry of the occasion), except I did it backward. It was truly a lovely ride once again. So many beautiful trails out here, and as you know, they always look completely new when you ride them in the opposite direction! Once we got back, I eventually took him down to the water spigot and gave him a good wash with medicated shampoo and sprayed him with antibiotic spray to try to diminish his rain rot. Had a chat with some new folks that moved in down the road. Oh, I forgot to tell you, the other night, there were a couple of tenters that were running their chainsaw at midnight, as well as either shooting a small caliber gun or very loud fireworks, not sure which. Kind of glad they moved on today, that was a little unnerving. Did a little research on some more Michigan horse camps, watched some TV, grilled an Angus burger and settled down for the evening. My truck is supposed to be ready tomorrow, I’m riding to the Woodville store with Alayna from the local trail association for lunch, and I have some shopping to do in addition to dropping off the rental car, so it’s going to be a busy day! So I’m heading off to shower and bed early, hoping to get a good night sleep. Good night, darlin’! Love you!

Hi Darlin’!
Not a bad night sleep, did my chores and breakfast, then eventually saddled up Flash to go on a nice 11.5 mile ride. I just can’t say enough about this beautiful forest! Every section has a different character. Some areas are pine tree farms, others still have some original old growth trees that just spread their limbs so wide it seems impossible for their trunks to hold all that weight. We did hills and curves and long straight-aways where we were hopping over downed trees like we were on some kind of cross-country event. It was just marvelous! I also took my picker-upper and a garbage bag and did some cleanup along the way. I’ve seen the occasional beer and soda cans, wrappers and deflated balloons, and it just disheartens me so to see such a pristine forest ruined by a few thoughtless or careless people, so I thought I’d chip in and do my part today. I also found a hidden gem, literally! There’s a large green crystal hidden along the trail, and I noticed it the other day because the sun was shining right on it and it glowed like fire. I thought it might have been part of a scavenger hunt for Independence Day, but I found out on Saturday that it was just a “feature,” not to be removed but to be photographed and admired and hidden for the fun of it. I managed to find it again, but without the sun on it, it was definitely much harder to find! I’m going to post a picture on the Hungerford Facebook page, without any clues where it is, of course. Eventually got back to camp around 3:00, let Flash munch for awhile, and I just relaxed and read and did a little more research on other Michigan horse camps for the rest of the day before settling down for the evening. I had a few little jobs I could have done, but really wasn’t in the mood today, I’m sure I will be one of these days! What a lovely day! Couldn’t have been more perfect! And the perfect ending, me off to the shower and to bed! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Darlin’!
Had a great night sleep, woke up raring to go, did my chores, then saddle up Flash to join the Hungerford Trail Riders Association Christmas in July ride. The information I had was that they would meeting at the pavilion at 10:30, but by 10:20 there was nobody there, so I figured they must have meant over on the Day Parking side. I didn’t want to be late so I drove over there and let them know I was on the way, and they were, in fact, gathering over there. So I came back to camp and got Flash and we got there pretty quick. They did a gift exchange (I donated an autographed copy of my book), then headed out on the trails. Alayna and another gal took the lead with me right behind. Flash, of course, wanted to go faster and kept his nose in the tail of the horse in front for most of the ride, though I tried to keep him back, but it’s gets tiring to fight him. He wasn’t too bad, but by the time we got back to camp nearly three hours later, he was ready to run! Since everyone was gathered I did my Snowy River, then they redid the gift exchange because there were a few folks that showed up late, though the gal who got my gift didn’t want to give it up, which I thought was flattering! I ended up with a nice bottle of red wine, perfect! I got back to camp, then several other folks stopped by to buy a copy of my book as well, always nice to defray some of the camping costs! Did some reading and stuff, settled down with a nice piece of grilled chicken and rice for dinner, then joined my neighbors Sheila and Tara (who got my book gift) around the campfire and chatted for quite awhile. Turns out Sheila winters in Florida near the Suwannee Music Park at a place she rents out, so I may have to stop there on my way back down south. I’ve always wanted to ride those trails, but the horse camp there is so expensive I could barely afford a weekend. Sheila is a lot more reasonable price-wise, so it might make a better stop than McCulley Farms, particularly since I’ve already been there so many times now. Need new trails! When the mosquitoes started coming out I headed back to camp, the sun just setting and still light out at 9:30 (I still can’t get used to it being light so late!), so I’ll barely have time to do the dishes before taking my shower and heading to bed. Better get that started! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Babe!
Had a tiny bit of water on my window sill this morning, but it looks like it might have just been from the seal between the fixed window and the slider, but I’ll have to wait for another rain before I can be sure. Meanwhile, it was a beautiful day, so after doing a bunch of stuff in the morning, I finally saddled up Flash midday and headed out to the western side of the park. Flash had lots of energy today, and when we got to a long, long stretch down a utility line, he decided to canter most of it, and fast-gaited the rest, nearly 1.75 miles! Then we turned on to #23, which is a beautiful trail, and that took us to #18, and I took the loop side down to the lake so Lola and Flash could both get a drink. I saw a beautiful deer by the side of the lake just after leaving the watering spot, and the rest of the trip back to camp was equally beautiful. Saw another deer very near camp as well. Stopped to talk to the ladies at the bottom, and learned that their night sleep was disrupted last night by what apparently was a bear banging around the bathroom and the dumpster. I never heard a thing, though Lola did bark a bit at one point, which she does often, so I’m never sure if it just a mouse or a raccoon or something more. Doesn’t matter, I’m pretty safe inside my trailer, though one of the ladies down there is just sleeping in a tent on the back of her pickup truck, so I can’t blame her for being a bit nervous about it. Anyway, got back to camp, got the horses settled, as well as myself, had a nice quiet evening, now it’s time for shower and bed! Another fabulous ride, a great day, beautiful weather, just what I seek! Supposed to rain tomorrow, but that’s fine, I need a day to catch up on my paperwork, I’ve gotten really behind on my bookkeeping and such. Might have to drive in to the post office as well, I ordered something on Amazon, thought it was coming with Prime, but they sent it USPS, and I doubt they’ll deliver to an “unofficial” address like the one I have right now! We’ll see! I tried to call them, but no one answered, though I let it ring until it hung itself up, did that for nearly an hour but nothing. I also had a conversation with brother Jeff, we went through the mail and there are some he’s going to forward me to that post office as well, but that won’t get here for a few days (assuming he gets it out in a reasonable time!). Anyway, enough about my day. Time to go! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Baby,
Had another good night sleep, spent the morning doing chores, then finally decided to work on the leaky bedroom window. I was happy to discover that once I removed the hole covers (only one was a real problem, thank goodness), it was an easy job to remove the entire window sash and every that was attached to it in one go. Then I tightened up the top screws, which I’m hoping will be the solution to the problem. If it still leaks after this, the only other thing I can think of is to replace the entire window. If I do that, I think I’ll change it out to an emergency-type window like I have on the other side, purely because I’ll be able to leave it open when it rains and get more fresh are through here. It’s been so cold and rainy this week it’s feeling a bit stuffy in here because I haven’t been able to open the windows. Even on the nice days, it’s only warm for a few hours before a chill sets in again. I’d rather have it warm than fresh at the moment! The point is, at least I’ve got that done, as much as I can, fingers crossed it solves the problem! I also did a few more odd jobs while I was waiting for Sandy and Bill, who showed up right at 11:00. Got the horses saddled, though I had to re-rig my spare Western saddle again, still not sure I’m doing it right, but it served the purpose for today. We went just over 10 miles, and three hours. We headed west of the Michigan Hiking and Riding trail until we got a few roads down, then headed south on the road until we hit the ORV trail, then east again until we got to the entrance to the camp. It went a lot slower than yesterday, we really didn’t do any cantering or fast gaiting, though Bill got a lot of canters in on Apollo, who wouldn’t let our two gaited horses out of his sight, naturally! Got back about 3:00, Sandy loaded up her mare, she got all of her stuff as well as some things I gave her, and they headed off about 4:00, leaving me on my own again. I did some packing up, then just enjoyed the peace and quiet. Settled down for the evening, and once again, am ready for my shower and bed, looking forward to getting back to Hungerford tomorrow, where I’ll FINALLY be able to get back on the internet and get some work done! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Sweetheart,
Had a good night sleep, but had set my alarm early to make sure I was ready to go when Sandy got here. We had agreed between 9 and 10:00, though I had emphasized that earlier was better, so I was all set and ready to go by just after 9:00. By 10:00 I had Flash all saddled and ready to go. By 10:25, still no sign of Sandy, and since I don’t have any cell service, I didn’t know if that meant she was late or not coming at all, I set out on my own. You know how much patience I developed with you over the years, how much waiting I had to do with you just with everyday living and I know you won’t begrudge me saying that since you’ve been gone, I’ve let that slip a bit. I’m sorry (not really), but life is too short, and I’m really not interested in wasting any more of it waiting for other people who don’t respect MY time. So Flash and I set off to find what I believed (and later found out I was wrong) the Shore-to-Shore trail. We went out the same way as yesterday, but turned on the first trail (well, really a sandy road) and headed west. It was wide and sandy, and it wasn’t long before we started running into ATV’s, dirt bikes and side-by-sides (who didn’t know about yielding to horses, so I had to educate a few people today). Eventually I saw that this was primarily designated for those machines, but I still thought it was a multi-use trail. Eventually, I got bored with it, though, and finally found a side trail that I realized was actually considered a forest road. Double track, but mostly grass and not very much used, actually quite nice. By now, because of the late start, my plan for a 15-mile ride was out the window, and frankly, this forest is rather boring, I headed back to camp, and because Flash was pretty randy today, we did a couple miles of galloping, cantering and fast-gaiting, arriving at about 12:30 and at 9.66 miles. Sandy was there riding her horse around the campground, she said she arrived around 10:30, so she obviously just missed me. Probably good that she had a chance to ride on her own, though, her mare is still pretty inconsistent with her gait and we haven’t really found a happy medium that’s comfortable for us both yet. I still wanted to make the 1:00 demonstration at the Lumbermen’s Memorial (my agenda today was to ride in the morning and spend the afternoon there), so I grabbed a sandwich and headed out. I didn’t want to rush Sandy, but she managed to be ready by the time I left, and we arrived just as the demonstration was starting. It lasted about 40 minutes, with ax-throwing, log carving, and log rolling, among other things, after which Sandy left and Lola and I proceeded to walk the grounds. There’s a Discovery Trail through the forest that was nice, and another trail along the cliff overlooking the AuSable River that was lovely. Several outbuildings were very educational, and there’s a beautiful bronze statue of a typical logging crew. That took us up to the 3:00 demonstration, so Lola and I went to see it again just for fun. There was a smaller crowd so they cut it down to just 30 minutes. Then I spent a few minutes on my computer since I had a signal there and then headed back to camp, changed my pants, then headed down to Sandy and Bill’s for a nice rib dinner with them and another couple of friends. It was a great meal and we had lively conversation, then I left a bit after 8:00, knowing I had horses to feed before it got dark. Accomplished that, but it took till almost 9:30, very little time to “settle down” for the evening, just enough time to write in my diary, take a shower and go to bed! Whew! What a day! And another busy one scheduled for tomorrow! Good night, darlin’! Love you!